Announced in August, the four-issue miniseries teamed Spencer with Demo artist Becky Cloonan for what was supposed to be a tale of a teenaged Doom as he journeyed into Hell to save the spirit of his mother.

“Really proud of the scripts and hope to get to work with @beckycloonan sooner rather than later,” Spencer wrote on Twitter.

b2quared

So…. I’m probably just going to be a DC-exclusive reader now. Ever since Ultimatum and Secret Invasion/Dark Reign, it’s been a slippery slope. And the way Marvel handles its characters and creators (and, therefore, fans), I’ll probably just going to bow out of my Marvel comics. I’m much more interested in all of these cool new titles like Animal Man, Resurrection Man, JLDark, Swamp Thing, Frankenstein, etc. Hell, even Didio is writing a good comic! How the heck does the writer of Outsiders, the single biggest piece of crap I’ve ever had the displeasure of reading, get a comic and make it work, but over at Marvel… Nick Spencer, who rocked Olsen AND the THUNDER Agents, can’t seem to make anything interesting?

Seems to me that Marvel has put to much focus on the movie division and really screwed over its comics recently. I couldn’t make it past issue three of Fear Itself.

Brian E.

Awful. As much as my Marvel reading has dwindled I was going to get this. Love Doom and liked what Spencer did at DC before he left. This must be so discouraging for him since he wnet exclusive with Marvel. Hope he will eventually go abck and do some stuff like Jimmy Olsen again.

Anyone

b2quared

@Anyone Is Daredevil any good? I’ve given up on DD after the last couple years of terrible writing.

I also do red other companies (some Image, one Dark Horse, two Dynamite). But the bulk of my comicking has always been DC/Marvel, and for a long time it was dominated by Marvel. Now, however, I’m reading NO Marvel and a TON of DC. I just wasn’t factoring other companies into the equation.

To be fair, however, those other companies’ titles are being read simply due to the creators.

Akwasi

Yea, I doubt this would be such a big deal if Nick Spencer going exclusive wasn’t treated with such fanfare by Marvel and media outlets. It was a big deal at the time, but why would Marvel put so much effort into nabbing him from DC if they were just going to put him on a bunch of tie ins or historically low-selling titles? WHy not give him New Avengers, or Iron Man proper or anyestablished title for a 6 issue run minimum? Build up his name around Marvel readers, then launch doom and cloak and dagger.

Brian from Canada

Akwasi

I think your right, titles like this should be published as super oversized (75pgs of story) one shots for like 6 bucks. A complete arc in one package. It would at least eliminate the self fulfilling prophecy that “minis get cancelled so I won’t buy it”

COme to think of it, they should do this for DC as well, for some of their tougher characters (shazam, blue beetle, the atom) Sell the copies on a quarterly basis.

sterg

Shawn Kane

It’s not written by an Architect, it’s not drawn by a Young Gun. It can’t be branded by the current company wide crossover. They can’t kill Doom and bring him back at the end. They can’t pull a stunt with a DC comic to sell it. They can’t do any of that so Marvel just decided to cancel it.

Mavel needs to take chances. They are upsetting fans by high prices on books and not having a diverse line. Everything seems Avengers, X-Men or Spider-Man oriented. Everything else is barely given a chance and pulled if it doesn’t do outstanding. Alpha Flight was a perfect example. Great book. Should have been given a chance to build an audience. It had a compelling story and great art, just pulled because of Marvel’s bottom-line. I think Marvel is afraid to underperform for parent Disney so they are playing it safe and boring. Whereas DC is taking chances on titles that might not seem great on paper but gives fans a breath of fresh air even in their own line of books (Batman for example you get titles focused on different aspects of the character : Batman & Robin, his detective side in Detective Comics, his dark side in Dark Knight, etc) Marvel is starting to diversify like in the X-Men line but outside of X-Men, Avengers, Spider-Man there isn’t much to choose from. DC is even making Hawkman, Aquaman and some other titles I would never have cared about before much more interesting than the typical Marvel title these days. Why doesn’t Marvel take advantage of it’s Digital comics? If they aren’t sure a title will sell then go Digital with it! I’ve always been a Marvel guy but they’re messing up. I only bother with the X-titles now and Ultimate Spider-Man. I don’ t think I’ll ever feel the same about Peter Parker Spider-Man after Quesada ruined him for me.

gargl

surprising from Alonso..it seems Marvel maybe want to focus on the Big Guns teased on the Point One Anthology, or Winter Soldier and Defenders..

Maybe it’s better like that, as the mini wouldn’t have to be foreshadowed by the others Big launchings, and as it had been pointed maybe the artist would have difficulties to switch with CONAN (she must be heart-broken, it was a personnal dream-project)

I ‘d prefer hearing the mini had been reported than cancelled

or maybe they want us to beg on message-boards, just like for Alpha Flight ?

Peruna

Leocomix

What is it with the Marvel bashing? Marvel still beats DC out in every compartment: best event (Spider-Island), best comic (Journey Into Mystery), best relaunches (DD, Punisher). As if anybody could believe there were readers of DC that wouldn’t have found a better Marvel title. It’s probably a matter of Cloonan not being available (or too little pre-orders–where were you so-called interested people?).

raffaele

I fear that the Marvel is losing all credibility; the first symptom of this was the prank on Alpha Flight, and continued with the early closure of the Winners Squad. If it carries on in this way, i see ever worse; perhaps it is time to make wider use of the format maxi series from 12 numbers, so as to create works that are not forced to close from one moment to another

Marvel Fan

Marvel?!! What the F?! I love Becky Cloonan and her art, I don’t care what book she is drawing or who the writer is, just get her drawing marvel super hero’s soon! I was really looking forward to this series, oh well , I guess I’ll go buy some more earth shattering mega crossover event books that have serious implications for the marvel universe!…… See what I did there Marvel? That’s called sarcasm.

Brandon

Akwasi

@Tom B
i think ultimate x-men is a good start, but its hardly a huge title at this point. the #1 sold relatively well, probably around 50,000. But if august to september is any indication, the whole ultimate universe save for spiderman is dropping sales wise. I’m talking about something central to the marvel universe proper. Why not put Spencer as a cowriter with Bendis on New avengers?

Roquefort Raider

Too bad for the series; I look forward to Cloonan’s art on Dark Horse’s Conan. As for canceling those new series: go right ahead, Marvel, but PLEASE don’t decide to go out with a bang and to kill all those characters or turn them into cyborgs or whatever!

HellBlazerRaiser

Peter

I just read on Bleeding Cool (so take this with a grain of salt) that Becky Cloonan had some family issues that prevented her from completing the interior art to for Doom while keeping a schedule with Conan. So Marvel wanted to publish, but had no interior art and didn’t want to go on without Cloonan. Presumably the project will be resurrected if or when Cloonan is available again.

Disco Magic

I am most disappointed by having the rug pulled out from under Alpha Flight. The whole reason I started reading the new series was that Marvel felt so strongly about how well it was doing that it decided to make it an ongoing. Then a few months later, poof!

RobA.

Even though I’m disappointed with Marvel with their crappy event’s and overpriced 3.99. They still have some great books. Uncanny X-force (only 3.99 I’m doing bc it’s so awesome), Daredevil, Punisher, Thunderbolts, Venom and even F4. I only buy the cheap 2.99 books bc they give you more excitement, cheaper the price, great stories. I stay away from most of the flagship books and marvel architects monthly. Secondary books these days are so much better than the flagship stuff.

Emm

Both Spencer and Cloonan are too bloody talented to be working for Marvel, which has done nothing but shit out an increasing volume of dull mediocrity the last couple of years. Bendis and his ‘architects’ should get their heads out of their fat asses and take a look at all the places they’re failing and DC are succeeding right now.

Because I’m predicting this run of DC outselling Marvel isn’t going top be changing anytime soon.

Nobody’s even TALKING about Marvel anymore. They’re stale, the Marvel Universe is a convoluted mess and so much bad writing and bad plot-mechanisms to try and sell comics through salaciousness and shock value have pretty much made a lot of once great characters either boring, self-parodying or just unlikeable.

But then if Marvel are going to employ arrogant morons like Bendis and Tom Breevort who shit all over the once respectable legacy of Marvel Comics , what do we really expect the comics to be like?

IAM FeAR

I’m not even a fan of Spencer of Cloonan (I’ve just never read much of anything they’ve done) but I was looking forward to this solely based on their excitement for it in the article announcing the project a couple months back. Sounded like a great Doom story too, and I’m always up for that. Hopefully it is merely postponed and not cancelled for good.

sandwich eater

Brad Frederick

If this means that Cloonan will be able to hold a regular schedule on Conan then I am all for it. I really enjoyed the Brubaker/Raimondi Books Of Doom series. I can go on with my life without another early Doom story.

sky

I’m not particularly going to make the full leap to DC or the Full leap to Marvel. We have to consider the tons of wonderful comic titles that are going on back and forth between the two companies, not to mention the tons of great Indy titles out there. I can’t stand the old debate that comes out of peoples mouths like “Oh well this sucks I’m going full time to Marvel or DC…yada yada bull crap.” I like comics and one company is never going to be the end all be all of comic book publishing.

Matty Macomber

Could’ve been interesting but, considering the layoffs, this seems like it was a reasonable business decision. Problematic, sure, for maintaining worker satisfaction for Cloonan and Spencer.

Fact is, I wasn’t going to buy it in the monthlies, despite liking the character and the creators. I wonder what percentage of Marvel-bashers in the comments would’ve actually purchased it in the alternate universe that Marvel went ahead and published it. I’m pretty sure their alternate reality counterparts are complaining about how Marvel is really shoving FF-stuff down their throat, as opposed to devoting resources to some other thing that no one else is buying.

Mark

Oh please, the righteous anger here is ridiculous. Comics need to make money, if they don’t make money then there is no point. the only reason they would have cancelled it is if it wasn’t going to make money. If you don’t like it, get out and join the ‘Occupy’ movement (no snark, I’m serious)

Two Bed Two Bath

Bravoboy

…am I the only one that thought this series looked pretty bad? Victor von Doom having adventures in sneakers and a t-shirt? I mean, I’m not happy that it’s been cancelled, but I wasn’t going to buy it anyways.

Tom W.

Lexor7

I appreciate that Spensor wanted to be a part of the Marvel Bullpen experience, which he sited as a key reason for going exclusive…but he really seems to just gel with DC and his own creator owned stuff in a way that hasn’t materialized at Marvel. I like his stuff and recently reread his great Jimmy Olson story. I hope to see him back at DC…his creative voice really works there.

JosephW

Mark
November 4, 2011 at 8:15 pm
Oh please, the righteous anger here is ridiculous. Comics need to make money, if they don’t make money then there is no point. the only reason they would have cancelled it is if it wasn’t going to make money. If you don’t like it, get out and join the ‘Occupy’ movement (no snark, I’m serious)

——————

Are you sure your name’s Mark and not Uatu? It must be amazing to KNOW FOR A FACT how a series will sell before a single issue has even been published. How does Marvel make money on a book they don’t sell? Oh, wait a minute–they DON’T.

And, if Marvel KNEW it wasn’t going to sell, why solicit the book in the first place, Uatu? And then why solicit a SECOND issue? And a THIRD? (Issue #3 is being solicited in the new Previews–which just came out this past Wednesday.) Doesn’t it seem a bit stupid to waste money in advertising the title in the Marvel Previews–money which now has to come from some other source?

It’s just too bad that Diamond doesn’t release the numbers for each month’s ORDERS. Sure, the “sales” figures are largely the same as initial orders, but when a title is cancelled before the first issue has even shipped, there’s no way of knowing how it did. (FWIW, if we’re looking solely at “making money,” Marvel has to be losing money with some of its licensed projects. The latest Oz and Anita Blake books’ first issues came in at 10K or less. Granted, they’re selling at a $3.99 price point, but Marvel still has to pay the talent for their work and the company presumably loses a sizeable chunk of change to the license holder. I can’t see a licensed title’s owner saying, “Well, we’ll base our fee on the number of copies you sell” since that’s not going to be in the property owner’s best interest.)

Greg

“Could’ve been interesting but, considering the layoffs, this seems like it was a reasonable business decision.”

Seriosuly, who the f*** honestly thinks this way about comics? Since when were we voluntary PR agents for our favourite companies?

We just want good comics. Marvel pulling the chain on various titles like this is pretty shocking, when they’re putting out 8-9 X-men titles.

Whatever reasons there were for cancelling the book – lack of editors, personal commitments, blah de blah – their arrogance (from the likes of Tom B, Steve W) and lack of transparency always makes them come across like a bag of dicks…All the while their competitor is whooping their arse in terms of sales and public opinion. NOT a resonable business approach, surely?

Daredevil is an amazing comic, I’ll give them that. Pinisher’s good too. But other than those books, they’re just not trying anymore. I would have bought this, along with all these other Spencer fans who were pissed that he left DC for Marvel. We’re just fans, not PR agents, and we’re justifiably upset.

I’m not an economic super-genius or anything, but if the first two or three issues of this were already in the can, then Marvel presumably already paid the creators for it. Sooooo, the only way this could NOT make money would be, what, if it was SO under-ordered that the money made was significantly less than the cost of printing the comics themselves, right?

By canceling it, Marvel just lost the money they paid the creators. So it’s not like the ecomonic consideration would be the entire consideration, as simply by canceling it they are losing the majority of the cost of the comic, right?